The Americans, again, adopt electrical contrivances for all sorts of domestic purposes.  There is not a single house in New York, Chicago, or anywhere else that I went into, that has not in the hall a little instrument [producing one] which, by the turn of a pointer and the pressing of a handle, calls for a messenger, a carriage, a cab, express wagon (that is, the fellow who looks after your luggage), a doctor, policeman, fire-alarm, or anything else as may be arranged for.  The little instrument communicates to a central office not far off, and in two minutes the doctor, or messenger, or whatever it may be, presents himself.

For fire-alarms and for all sorts of purposes, domestic telegraphy is part and parcel of the nature of an American, and the result was that when the telephone was brought to him, he adopted it with avidity.  On this side of the Atlantic domestic telegraphy is at a minimum, and I do not think any one would have a telephone in his house if he could help it.

When you want a thing, you must pay for it.  The Americans want the telephone, and they pay for it.  In London people grumble very much at having to pay L20 to the Telephone Company for the use of a telephone.  I question very much whether L20 a year is quite enough; at any rate, it is not enough if the American charge is taken as a standard.  The charge in New York is of two classes—­one for a system called the law system, which is applied almost exclusively for the use of lawyers, which is L44 a year; the other being the charge made to the ordinary public, and which will compare with the service rendered in London, which is charged for at L35 a year, against L20 a year in London.  The charge in Chicago is L26 a year; in Boston, Philadelphia, and a great many other places it is L25 a year.  At Buffalo a mode of charging by results is adopted; everybody pays for each oral message he sends—­every time he uses the telephone he pays either four, five, or six cents, according to the number for which he guarantees.  Supposing any one of us wanted a telephone at Buffalo, the company will supply it under a guarantee to pay for a minimum of 500 messages per annum.  If 1,000 messages are sent, the charge is less pro rata, being six cents, if I remember rightly, for each message under 500, and five cents up to 1,000 messages, four cents per message over 1,000 messages; and so everybody pays for what work he does.  It is payment by results.  The people like the arrangement, the company like it because they make it pay, and the system works well.  But I am bound to say that, up to the present moment, Buffalo is the only city in the United States where that method has been adopted.